Giants ready to welcome back Barry Bonds

Feb. 23, 2014
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by Jorge L. Ortiz, USATODAY

by Jorge L. Ortiz, USATODAY

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. â?? The San Francisco Giants' spring training camp gets regular visits from former franchise greats like Willie Mays, Jeff Kent and Will Clark, so manager Bruce Bochy figures the current players will view Barry Bonds in a similar vein.

Well, maybe.

This was Hunter Pence's recollection of playing against baseball's all-time home run leader: "Whoa.''

"When I was a rookie or in my second year I was like, 'Holy cow, Barry Bonds is hitting and I have to play defense,''' Pence added.

The Giants revealed Saturday that Bonds would join the team as a spring training instructor at an unspecified time in March. Bonds, who last played in the majors in 2007, has maintained for some time he would like to help hitters in some capacity but without the time commitment required of a hitting coach.

The only two players left from his Giants tenure are Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum, both pitchers.

While Bonds has been around the club for some functions in recent years, few of the current players know him well.

"Barry's role is going to be just like all the other instructors. He'll be helping out,'' Bochy said. "Players should feel comfortable approaching any instructor we have here, and that's not going to change.''

Known for his disciplined approach and keen baseball mind, Bonds also holds the all-time record for walks and ranks sixth in on-base percentage at .444.

Hitters like Pence and Buster Posey happily greeted the news the seven-time MVP would be available to share his knowledge of the game with them.

"It's exciting to be able to listen, just kind of watch and see what kind of stuff you can pick up,'' Posey said. "From talking to people who played either with him or coached when he played, everybody talks about how he always had a very simple approach. I think everybody can take something from that, because sometimes we tend to overcomplicate things.''

Posey said he hadn't given any thought to the increased media scrutiny likely to arrive with Bonds, who broke the home run record under strong suspicion of steroid use and was later convicted of obstructing justice for his misleading testimony to a grand jury investigating the BALCO doping scandal.

His new role as instructor signifies a welcome-back of sorts by the Giants organization, which declined to offer him a contract after the 2007 season. No other team signed him either, despite his 28 home runs and major league-high .480 OBP in his final year.

Pence was a big Bonds fan growing up and, while with the Houston Astros, had lunch with him after Bonds' career ended. He sees Bonds' presence as an opportunity to get better.